Waikato pensioners are starving and raiding their KiwiSaver accounts to pay back mounting credit card debt.

This is a badly written story. It takes an assertion of a financial adviser and reports it as fact. It should report it as an assertion and credit it to the financial adviser.

Hamilton Budgeting Advisory Trust manager Clare Mataira said financial abuse of the elderly is a growing problem and she is pushing for banks to tighten their lending policies.

“We’re seeing people use credit cards for living expenses.

“I’ve seen more superannuitants in the last four to five years using credit cards for living expenses than in my whole career,” she said.

Not sure why, as the pension has increased well beyond the rate of inflation. Every year the purchasing power of NZ Superannuation tends to increase. We have the most generous superannuation scheme in the world – universal, linked to the median wage, no means or asset testing etc.

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38 Responses to “Assertion as fact”

Very clumsy article, and using small hearsay examples to push a barrow. Superannuitants “raiding” their Kiwisaver accounts? Wait… isn’t the ENTIRE PURPOSE of a Kiwisaver account to fund retirement??

The wider issue is still important, and that is the affordability of living for senior citizens in NZ. Living cost increases often outpace inflation, and it certainly hits retirees. Those who have prudently saved for retirement and put their money in safe fixed interest investments are bleeding from low interest rates. Low rates are great for people like me who still have a mortgage but for someone more chronologically challenged … a Term deposit paying 4%, then taking away tax is barely keeping its current value after inflation much less paying living.

“”Assertion as fact: ‘We have the most generous superannuation scheme in the world’. Just sayin…””
It just goes to show how far behind the rest of the world is and the petty minded irresponsibility of some younger people

It would be useful to examine the antecedents of the budget/financial advisor. The whole piece appears to have been inspired. And one SMELLS A POLITICAL SLANT..,….

And yes, the Nat Super Scheme is probably the most generous in the world.
Food prices? Pretty stable with the only the GST spike that was covered by an extra Nat Super increase.

The biggest problem facing retirees who own their own homes are council rates. Until that6 disgusting mess is solved, period, it will be a festering sore for all Governments. Time for a local income tax to replace rates. To quote Hartwich “Tax legs , not things”

It’s all anti-bank crap. Clare Maitara is claiming banks shouldn’t give credit cards to old people because they don’t manage it well. When it’s those who don’t manage credit well who should not get credit cards from banks.

Since when did pensioners haves kiwisaver accounts?
Once over 65 you can cash in your KS account and get the proceeds. I wouldn’t imagine there was much in this account given the short time KS has been going.

CLaire M went from managing student village Hamilton ending up at budgeting service. Never needed or had economic skills at uni. All wishy washy socialist crap. Very PC.

Just as pokies are a tax on the ignorant, so are credit card borrowing costs. 22% is the stuff of Shylock.
I got my new superannuiatants’ card from ANZ Bank. I was told that I could not use it at a cash machine until the next day as the details were getting loaded up. My response was that if I was stupid enough to pay 22% interest then I must be an imbecile. At 65 years of age one should be lending money, not borrowing the stuff.
But when one sees the level of support that the Greens get, you realise that there are a large number of stupid people for the banks to cater for.

Really, like the 60 Minutes piece that’s been sent to the great 404 in the sky because a security contractor named Dylan Davies gave an account that CBS could no longer trust to be accurate. Those facts?.

Wiki … credit cards can be what you say but if used with intelligence can be a boon in evening out expediture and meeting sudden needs….I treat my cards as monthly accounts and have been doing so for the past few years and spend very little cash. Withdraw $100 and it usually lasts me best part of a month. NO CCs are great for the sensible person who lives within their means … instead of just the ‘rish’ have monthly accounts it is available for all and the incomes the banks make helps to keep them strong and safe … in Australiasia anyway.

Cha, so the original Benghazi story, how Clinton refused security, the administration ignored warnings of an attack (on 9/11 for christ’s sake), and then when the attack happened abandoned those there so Obama could get a good nights sleep to attend a fundraiser in Las Vegas…isn’t a scandal ? And then flat out lying about how it was caused by a Video and arresting someone on a trumped up charge to add “veracity” to that lie, that not a scandal either ? The administration was asleep at the wheel and abandoned those in Benghazi to be killed because they were utter incompetents without clues, and after all a big, big, fundraiser in Las Vegas is more important than 4 obscure peoples lives ain’t it ?

It is admittedly hard to get to the bottom of it all as the State department has refused to testify before Congress, put blanket no talking bans on staffers, and hidden those involved under some sort of fake protection scheme (or not fake if you think of it as a Clinton/Obama protection scheme). But it worked as intended, all they needed to do was to keep a lid on their obvious complicity in the death of Ambassador Stevens and the others until after the election, nothing else was important.

“…..credit cards can be what you say but if used with intelligence can be a boon in evening out expediture and meeting sudden needs….I treat my cards as monthly accounts and have been doing so for the past few years and spend very little cash….”

They’re good for reducing the daily interest rate on your mortgage by putting all your pay into your homeloan account and living off your card for the 30day period. Although it is better suited to medium/higher income earners.

I know people who go to restaurants with friends – take everyone elses cash – and then pay for the entire bill on their card. The very next day they deposit the cash into their homeloan account and therefor pay less daily interest for the remainder of the 30day period. They do this with any other cash they get too. Although you do have to manage your income and expenditure over the entire month so you can payout your card by the end of the 30day interest free period. If you can be responsable with money then they are very good. However they are designed to trap you into being careless and spending more than you should.

You can’t make sweeping generalisations about people. You have to know the individual circumstances. Some have never earned enough to save. Others have had business failures or lost jobs. Others still have been plagued by medical problems. A lot of people thought they had adequate savings until the finance industry collapsed. For some it is their own fault.

Many certainly have just enough to live on with nothing to spare for the unexpected. Living must be a strain for them.

“Waikato pensioners are starving and raiding their KiwiSaver accounts…” of the small amount they would have put in since it started, plus the $1000 that was raided from taxpayers to kickstart them into good financial habits.